Dr. Mary Umolu Jazzy Jazz Festival

The Dr. Mary Umolu Jazzy Jazz Festival, held on nine Friday evenings from July 6 to August 31, 2018, will pay tribute to Master Pianist Cecil Taylor this year. The 2018 edition takes place in front of the College’s Academic Complex Building at the corner of Bedford Avenue and Crown Street, in Brooklyn. The program is from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. Seating is on a first-come basis. This event is FREE to the public.

Originally created as the Jazzy Jazz Festival, the festival was renamed the Dr. Mary Umolu Jazzy Jazz Festival in honor of Dr. Mary Umolu, a professor and chair of the department of Mass Communications, Creative and Performing Arts and Speech at Medgar Evers College. Dr. Umolu was committed to educating a new generation about the history of the only uniquely American art form created in the 20th Century—Jazz—thus ensuring that the entire community heard the music. “The department is carrying forth the legacy and goal of this extraordinary educational and cultural program,” states Dr. Clinton Crawford, the current department chair. “Attendees can relax in style to the rhythms of Jazz in the cool and friendly outdoors. We do not envision Jazzy Jazz as simply a summer concert event,” he said. “This festival and its performers will become embedded in the educational life of the community.”